Blogs

The first person you are likely to meet when you arrive at Hotel Gotham in Manchester will be ‘Hartley’ – an immaculately dressed doorman with a waxed moustache who welcomes all guests at the front door. He, or one of his equally immaculately dressed bell-boys, will park your car for you in the hotel’s private car park and escort you up to hotel reception on the sixth floor where you will be greeted with a smile, a friendly welcome and a complimentary cocktail. If, like me, you believe a hotel has a small window in which to make a good first impression then head to Hotel Gotham for a masterclass in how it should be done.

Hotel Gotham is the conversion of the Edwin Lutyens-designed former Midland Bank headquarters in Manchester’s commercial quarter. The original art-deco features including the huge windows and the old bank doors have been retained and the building has now been reinvented as a 60-bedroom luxury hotel which opened at the beginning of May.

Hotel Gotham’s design is inspired by the building art-deco heritage combined with references to banking and the occasional nod to Batman and friends. The bedrooms, for example, have gold ingot toiletry displays and ‘swag-bags’ for the laundry. The restaurant has typewriters on the wall, and the bar briefcases for light fittings. Umbrellas as lampshades feature in the entrance hall. The Gotham Bugle provides the latest news from Gotham City as well as offering directional signage around the hotel.

All bedrooms are air-conditioned and furnished with a flatscreen television, with freeview and satellite channels, an espresso machine and a kettle, a hair-dryer plus an iron and ironing board. Extras include a hangover kit, an intimacy kit, a mobile charger kit and a pair of old-fashioned metal binoculars.

There are four superb inner sanctum bedrooms featuring leather-clad walls and a huge projection of the city skyline on one wall to compensate for the fact that these rooms have no windows.

The 60-cover Honey Restaurant is on the sixth floor serving a contemporary menu. Club Brass is the hotel’s VIP private club to which guests have access during their stay. This is on the seventh floor and includes a roof terrace and great views across the city skyline.

Hotel Gotham is a friendly, relaxed hotel with a keen sense of humour and witty touches. You walk around the hotel with a smile on your face but don’t be fooled into thinking the lightness of touch masks a lack of professionalism. On the contrary, I think Hotel Gotham is a deeply serious undertaking dedicated to providing the highest levels of service. It is a unique hotel and a wonderful addition in a city which has no shortage of good quality hotels.

Details: www.hotelgotham.co.uk

Details: Published: 21 May 2015; Hits: 4234

The Studio Kitchen at K West Hotel and Spa in Shepherd’s Bush, west London is celebrating National Sandwich Week. It runs from 10th to 16th May just in case the event had slipped your mind.

K West Hotel has created a 'seaside sandwich' reports Good Housekeeping Magazine. The sandwich is a very special fish, chips and mushy peas sandwich - but it is not quite what you might imagine it to be. This is not a traditional, greasy fish and chip supper smothered in tomato sauce and wrapped in a bread roll.

The K West seaside sandwich is a crusty white ciabatta filled with a fillet of beer-battered Pollock, served alongside a portion of 'proper' mushy peas and garnish of sweet potato crisps. However as a nod to tradition the sandwich does come wrapped in a newspaper - or at least a newspaper cone for the chips.

Details: www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk

Details: Published: 13 May 2015; Hits: 4871

GrowUp Urban Farms is Britain’s first aquaponic urban farm. They have just been granted planning permission to build a large-scale farm in Beckton, East London. The aquaponic urban farm will use a combination of aquaculture – fish farming – and hydroponics, or soil-free technology, to produce more than 20,000kg of salad and herbs and 4,000kg of fish each year, all from a warehouse in Beckton. The first harvest is planned for September and much of the produce will be sold to local hotels and restaurants.

GrowUp Urban Farms will combine two well-established farming practices – aquaculture (farming fish) and hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient solution without soil) in a recirculating system. Waste water from fish tanks is pumped through hydroponic growing beds where salad plants absorb waste nutrients from the water and clean the water for the fish as the system continually recirculates.

In all cities, and especially London, where space is at a premium, taking on existing warehouses and converting them to productive growing spaces is seen as a way of reducing the environmental impacts of food production as well as bringing food production closer to urban communities. It is a model that can be replicated and scaled in cities across the UK and the world.

GrowUp Urban Farms will also include a visitor centre allowing people to understand more about sustainable food production in cities.

More details: www.infrastructure-intelligence.com

Details: Published: 23 April 2015; Hits: 4469

The Goring Hotel is delivering what they claim is ‘London's ultimate service experience’ with two footmen dressed in scarlet tailcoats and immaculate gold-trimmed waistcoats, standing at the door ready to greet guests with welcoming smiles.

The new service is for guests staying in The Goring’s Belgravia and Royal Suites. From the moment guests arrive to the moment they leave, a dedicated footman will be on hand to fulfil each and every request - from securing a reservation to delivering a cocktail to the suite each evening.

The team of footmen, who have been chosen for their personable character and communication skills, have been trained to The Goring’s standards by long serving members of staff. Their aim is to deliver the ultimate service experience.

“Service is what we are known for – and is what matters most in a good hotel” explains Jeremy Goring.

Meanwhile in central London the W Hotel in Leicester Square views the latest advances in mobile communications as the best avenue for providing their guests with an enhanced service. Starwood’s W Hotel is to offer keyless door entry to Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty club members. The loyalty club is free to join. The launch of the keyless door entry coincides with the launch of the new Apple Watch.

Scanners which read digital keys via guests’ smartphones and wearable devices have been installed on all the hotel’s room doors, in the lifts and other public areas that require key entry.

The keyless app also has other features including the address of the hotel and direction details as well as transport options available during a guest’s stay.

The W London is the first hotel in the UK to take advantage of the Apple Watch. The hotel predicts that the Apple Watch will be a big hit with their guests and if everything runs smoothly, the technology could save time and allow staff to focus on providing their guests with other services.

Details:
www.thegoring.com
www.wlondon.co.uk

Details: Published: 07 May 2015; Hits: 4276

Plans have been submitted for the redevelopment of the grade II-listed Churchills Hotel in Llandaff, Cardiff. The scheme would restore the hotel buildings back into two semi-detached houses with a further five detached and two semi-detached houses in the grounds.

Churchills Hotel is owned by brewery and pub group Brains. They put the property up for sale at the end of 2014. Brains will continue trading the property as a hotel until July 2015.

Details: Published: 30 March 2015; Hits: 4426

Page 32 of 43

Refurbishment Round-up